First Breath

After three consecutive demos released in the middle of the 90’s, Mercenary finally launched their first album titled First Breath. The first breath of these guys sounded very bold, unleashing a crushing melodic death metal with thrashy influences. The line-up back then consisted of four members, led by Kral who took over the vocals and bass duties. The sound was raw and less polished than the subsequent records. This, however, wasn't a problem since Kral made sure to craft a unique product filled with superior songwriting.

The musicianship in First Breath is a combination of brutal vocals, and strong guitar melodies, implemented by thrashy riffs and a decent drum work. The vocals here are growly and menacing. Kral did some epic monstrous growls throughout the album. Somehow he used it in favor of the music to create a dark atmosphere and give a violent approach to the songwriting. The female vocals was used in both of the songs Horizons and Sister Jane adding a contrasting soft touch to the album.

Something else worth mentioning is the guitars. They proved to be massively melodic and complex in nature. The memorable riffs omitted any potential repetition or tediousness in the songs. Some impressive solos filled in very as well, and in a good fashion, particularly in the tracks Horizons, Next To Nothing and Master Game. The bass role is impressive, too. I mean, the music would've never sounded this brutal if the bass wasn’t implemented effectively. The drums are decent and are were not sidelined as I highly expected from a professional talented band like Mercenary I liked most the pleasing percussion work, it did enhance the overall sound by a notch and made this album more enjoyable to my ears.

In final conclusion, First Breath is the most brutal album in the musical history of Mercenary, and I firmly believe that they won’t make anything similar to this in the future. This is an exceptional release by an exceptional line-up. Unfortunately, this line-up has slowly disintegrated over the years and nobody remained bar Jacob Mølbjerg. This masterpiece is a must-have album, you can’t listen to later Mercenary without listening to their early gold shiny music. I recommend you to check First Breath if you like to hear raw and rough melodic-death with exploding growls and coherent songwriting. This album will stay as one of the classics of Mercenary. There is no doubt.

Standouts: Symbiotic, Horizon, Next to Nothing, Demon8, Perceptive and Supremacy.

Written for Encyclopaedia Metallum 04-10-2010
© Kimiwind

This is Mercenary's first album to be released and there is almost nothing that can be taken out as a negative thing. Mercenary's music is (very) well thought through and the production is good. These two things together make an entirety that shines brighter than most other music that I've heard.

There's a lot of melody in Mercenary's music. But there is also a roughness and brutality present during the whole ride. But it's a nice ride, and it continues for more than an hour. An hour of sheer quality melodic death metal with wonderful contrasts. Kral plays his bass and does also handle the absolutely stunning vocals. Nowadays he share his grunting and screaming voice with Mikkel who sings clean which works perfectly on "Everblack". But here, on "First Breath", he delivers maybe the best growls I've come to hear! It's so full of modulation that I don't miss Mikkel ("Everblack" was the first record I heard with Mercenary). The guitar work is more than great. It is beyond this world! Melodies that give the rainbow its colors, melodies that melt the snow, melodies that would be able to stop wars. And behind the drums we find the ambassador of Atlantis, Rasmus Jakobsen. Well, it's absolutely brilliant what he does to his drums and percussion.

Yes, I am lyrical. And hopefully you will understand why if you get to listen to this wonderful piece of Scandinavian metal. As stated in the beginning of this review: It is hard to point out anything negative about this album. But why doesn't I give it a full score? Well, sometimes when I listen to "First Breath", the songs tend to sound quite alike each other, and I don't like that. And some passages feels kind of slow and just not interesting enough. But the songs are still exceptionally good.

"HORIZON – DO YOU REMEMBER THE TIME OF WINTER WHEN WE WERE SO YOUNG – HORIZON” Bang yer heads!